Welcome Back to Mac, Quicken

Those of us who continue to use the only full-featured personal
finance program available on the Mac, Quicken 2007, received an early
Christmas present on Dec. 22: news directly from the new General
Manager of Intuit's Personal Finance Group, Aaron Forth, that Quicken
2007 will be made Lion-compatible by "early Spring".

Arguably the most widely-used and well-known application to become
broken by the inexplicable absence of Rosetta (the software that let
Intel Macs run PowerPC software) from Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Quicken 2007 is the
sole reason I continue to use OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard on my
primary Mac. We have financial data going back to 1998 in Quicken and,
unable to find a suitable replacement, won't be abandoning it anytime
soon.

However, in anticipation of the inevitable arrival of the day when I
would be forced to upgrade to Lion because of Snow Leopard
incompatibility that seems to increase with each application that is
upgraded, I had already set out to figure out how to continue using
Quicken 2007.

I had finally settled on a solution that involved running Snow
Leopard Server virtualized in VMware
on a Mac mini running Lion Server and accessing Quicken via an RDP
(Remote
Desktop Protocol) client and terminal server. This solution was
actually not as complicated as it sounds, and it gave us a new benefit:
the ability to access Quicken from virtually anywhere we had an
Internet connection. In fact, as I write this, I am returning from
Christmas vacation having already entered every expenditure in Quicken,
running on a nondescript headless Mac mini server sitting in my
basement.

Thanks to Intuit's announcement, this setup (hopefully) won't be
required much longer. However, we are quickly becoming accustomed to
the newfound convenience of being able to access our Quicken accounts
from anywhere. We might just keep this solution in place anyway.

Even if we do decide to continue running Quicken on a terminal
server, Intuit's announcement is welcome news, as it means I will no
longer be required to run Quicken on a virtual Snow Leopard Server.
Instead, I will be able to install and run it directly on Lion
Server.

It remains to be seen how the compatibility will be achieved. The
preferred method would be to rewrite the code base so as not to rely on
Rosetta, but other, less-elegant solutions - such as creating their own
custom Rosetta wrapper - would be technically possible. Rewriting the
code in Cocoa (Rosetta apps are written in Apple's now-obsolete Carbon)
would better ensure compatibility with future versions of the Mac OS
after Lion.

Intuit's FAQ section simply calls it "a reengineered version of
Quicken for Mac 2007 that will work on OS X 10.7 Lion". This seems to
indicate a rewrite, but only time will tell.

When you get right down to it, Quicken is a program that, absent
bugs in the software, needs little maintenance. After all, the basic
methods of accounting and bookkeeping don't really change very often.
That being said, a refresh of the online banking feature to include
more banks would be useful.

In the announcement, Mr. Forth identifies himself as a "fellow Mac
fan and customer". This fact in itself certainly could go a long way in
healing the rift and soothing the hard feelings Mac users have
developed with Intuit. The same can be said for Mr. Forth's candid
acknowledgment that Intuit has not always delivered on its commitment
to Quicken Mac customers. All most of us have ever asked of Intuit is
to admit to the problem and fix it. They have accepted responsibility
for the problem and have committed to fixing it. Any way you slice it,
this is good news for Mac users.

Intuit's de facto abandonment of the Mac platform made little
sense. The installed base of Macs has consistently grown each year -
and significantly at that. Much of this growth came at the expense of
Windows. So few of us could figure out why Intuit was leaving a rapidly
growing market out in the cold, especially when they had supported us
(more or less) during the lean years. Admittedly, Intuit's Mac business
line never exactly drove the company, but neither did it lose money.
Giving Quicken a refresh, especially in light of the current dearth of
acceptable personal finance software for the Mac, will most likely
result not only in Intuit's holding on to its existing installed base,
but to attracting more than a few new users as well.

I will never entrust my personal finances to an app that exists
solely in the cloud. I'm fairly certain I have a lot of company on this
issue. If Intuit wants to corner the personal finance software market,
I know how they could do it. While I won't dump my finances into the
cloud, I am not opposed to it residing there as well as on my
Mac. My terminal server experiment has caused me to be reluctant to
return to the single-location solution to managing my personal
finances. Why can't I install Quicken on my Mac, my wife's Mac, as well
as our iPads and maybe even iPhones, then have all my accounts synced
and available on any of these installations? After all, that is exactly
what happens with the books I read on my Kindle app. When I put down my
iPad and later pick up my iPhone and open the Kindle app, I am on the
same page in the book as when I closed the app on my iPad.

Amazon accomplishes this through the cloud in largely the same way
Intuit could and should. My financial information would reside not only
in the cloud, but also on any Mac or iDevice with Quicken. Intuit would
have a bit more of a challenge than Amazon, but not much. Where Amazon
only has to store and sync bookmarks, not the entire book, Intuit would
need to store all of a user's accounts and transactions.

Also contained in the announcement, sent via email to registered
users of Quicken 2007 for Mac, is a hint at more good news for Mac
users. The message references a renewed commitment to the Mac platform
in other, unspecified ways. The full text of the message is reprinted
below so you can draw your own conclusions and perhaps make your own
speculations.

Dear Quicken Mac Customer:

As a fellow Mac fan and customer, I wanted to personally introduce
myself, and share some highlights of our Apple-related efforts with
you.

I recently became General Manager of the Personal Finance Group at
Intuit, responsible for Quicken and Mint.com. Intuit's 25 years of
leadership in personal financial management software makes me excited
to lead this team and I am committed to creating products to help you
reach your financial goals.

I recognize, however, that we have not always delivered on this
promise to Quicken Mac customers.

As you may know, Quicken for Mac 2007 does not currently work on
Apple's latest operating system, Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). I understand the
frustration this may have caused you and have put a team in place to
address this issue. I am happy to announce that we will have a solution
that makes Quicken 2007 for Mac "Lion-compatible" by early spring.
There are still details to be worked out, so I ask your continued
patience as we work through these. In the meantime, you can find more
information on our Mac FAQ page.

Working toward a Quicken for Mac 2007 solution is just a first step
in winning back your confidence.

We are expanding our development team to continue our renewed focus
on personal finance solutions that suit the needs of our Mac customers.
As we develop solutions, we'll be looking to you and the rest of our
Mac customers for ideas and feedback.

I understand we have a way to go, but I wanted to start by
communicating our commitment to Mac and look forward to sharing the
details with you as they emerge.

Steve Watkins is the Vice President for Information Technology for a mid-sized bank, an attorney, and an Army Reserve JAG on extended active duty. He has been a Mac user for about 12 years. He has owned some PCs along the way - but always came back to the Mac. If you find his articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

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